How Easily The Fickle Rich Are Swayed, Russell Brand Puts Down His Pitchfork

It’s hardly surprising that Eddie Izzard, Alan Partridge and now even Russell Brand all want us to vote Labour. They are the people the modern Labour Party represents after all. Millionaires who feel a bit guilty about poverty and stuff but don’t want to change things too much. At least not so much that it might make an impact on their own cosseted lives.

Russell Brand will never face a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee, the latest mass workfare scheme that Labour plan to introduce. He will not have his income capped and be socially cleansed from his fashionable address like the families who will fall victim to Labour’s planned regional Benefit Caps. He had his time dicking about on benefits when he was young, unlike the 18-21 year olds who will face their benefits being removed completely if Labour win power this week.

It is this last policy that tells us everything about the direction of any future Labour government and the so-called help they plan to inflict on the poorest. Labour are planning to do just what Margaret Thatcher did to 16/17 year olds and implement a mass YTS style scheme for everybody under 21. In return for the pittance of benefits young people will face full-time compulsory training. Last time Labour did something like this, Tony Blair’s New Deal, this training quickly became workfare. The truth is that’s all they can afford to do. Real training, which leads to qualifications, costs a lot of money. It’s far cheaper to pay private sector sharks like A4e to bully young people into unpaid work placements.

If the Tories had announced in 2010 that they were going to end benefits completely for those under 21 there would have been outrage amongst the mainstream left. The Guardian and The Mirror would have run scathing headlines and ordered us to sign a petition. Trade union leader Len McClusky would have given a speech. Russell Brand would have made a youtube video. And that by the way is as angry as the middle classes get about anything which doesn’t affect them directly.

Labour’s mass workfare plans go way beyond anything the Tory Party have pledged and yet they have still been met with hordes of gushing celebrities and newspaper columnists demanding that we vote for them. Anything to keep the Tories out – who don’t really seem to know what they will do in the unlikely event they actually win this election except that they will carry on being bastards And they are bastards. Horrible fucking arseholes in fact. It is understandable that so many people would like to see the smug smirks wiped off their faces if they lose power this week. But life will not change for the poor if that happens.

Sometimes having an enemy that is open in their intentions is better than a fake friend who will stab you in the back. There is no doubt that a bunch of shambolic toffs embarking on reckless austerity policies has brought the questions of class and inequality back into UK politics in a way not seen in two decades. The resistance to these policies has been well targeted and quietly ferocious – and it has not come from celebrities or Labour Party stooges.

That resistance is why there were less people on workfare schemes in the latest month’s figures than there were in the last period of the Labour Government. It is why the number of people found ‘fit for work’ at sickness benefit assessments has plummeted from 60% in May 2010 to an all time low of 24% in the latest figures available. It is why Atos, the company carrying out these tests, abandoned their contract as their name became a dirty word associated with cruelty and incompetance. Benefit claimants and disabled people themselves did this, whilst the official opposition stood slack-jawed on the sidelines.

The danger of a Labour Government is that these inept traitors will be silent no longer. It will be all of them, from the Labour Party to the Daily Mail, against us. The regional benefit cap will be a tough choice, but necessary, we will be told by the people who once said they were on our side. The reformed work capability assessment and further tests for disability benefits will be a beacon of compassion, getting help to those who need it most and killing off the scroungers. Compulsory jobs that pay less then the minimum wage will become exciting opportunities. And benefit sanctions will be fair and only aimed at really lazy chavs who refuse to get a job.

That is what a vote for Labour means. Consent for the bastards to carry on as usual. Popular permission to escalate the attacks on social security. For Russell Brand – who called himself a revolutionary five minutes ago – to endorse this is both treason and boringly predictable. It is astonishing and even quite funny that as soon as a rich person publicly denounces capitalism then the leader of a main political party dashes round their house and steers them gently back onto the path of neo-liberalism. But it is a tragedy as well, at least for those who may have felt inspired by Brand’s crude radicalism. His message, before Ed’s intervention, was essentially along the right lines. They are all fucking wankers and only in it for themselves. That includes Russell Brand as well it turns out. Never trust a hippy, especially a rich one.

284 responses to “How Easily The Fickle Rich Are Swayed, Russell Brand Puts Down His Pitchfork”

Brand’s change of heart makes a mockery of what he’s said in all his videos. More basically, the change contradicts the logic of what he previously said. I think he believes what he previously said, but for some absurd reason doesn’t realise, or doesn’t want to admit, that Labour are as much part of the neo-lib/neo-con agenda as the Tories. There is a strong tendency in people to want to believe in something, to have hope – it takes intellectual strength and experience to resist false hope. Unfortunately Brand hasn’t resisted that temptation.

yep, they want to stay rich…and want to sprinkle the poor (precarious classes) with magic dust, so that we feel rich without actually being so….
they’re terrified of INFLATION, don’t really want wealth redistribution and bang on, as if, clever words cure poverty and/or the resultant suffering… (notwithstanding izzard left out the clever words, the curious see #wingsscotland and i’ve no idea what partridge has said)

shit
see what we want to see what sort of rubbish is that?….if you think they’ll listen to us without political power driven by mass movement, then you haven’t been paying attention…i see that we are suffering mass poverty…i’m voting snp for progressive change and it’s labour that really needs to radically change….keir hardie must be burrelin’ in his grave….progressive change aint gonna happen without us pushing politics to the start line….yes with sharp political focus on ensuring reliable supplies of vitality giving vitals of life, for all…the scotpolrev has already begun…!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAd_f6Pdm3o dennis canavan…

It always amuses me how the present day Labour Party claims some kind of connection with Keir Hardy. Keir Hardie, born in Scotland, and first ever elected Independent Labbour Party MP standing for Merthyr Tudful. The ILP was always a far more radical organisation than the Labour Party ever has been, even though the Labour Party eventually subsumed the ILP. If there are any political parties that deserve to see themselves as true
descendents of the ILP of Keir Hardie then they are more likely to be the likes of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party rather than that neo-liberal sell-out called the Labour Party.

While Brand has some good points about the present political system, and about the poor, etc, etc, telling those same poor ppl not to vote as it won’t change nothing is when all sensible folks simply switch off. How can this idiot, for such he is, insist we don’t vote? And when the tories back get in to power because the poor didn’t vote, or the Independence Referendum in Scotland is lost, because some folks didn’t vote, then bitterly lament the outcome, and it results in things like the Bedroom Tax, and more workfare and sanctions, and so on….What’s our Russell gonna do ta help ?
I think he is out of his depths when it comes to matters political. If he is now telling everyone whom he told not to vote, to vote for the Red Tories, then, really, he should just give it all up now. He had his little fling in the real world. It was noted, but never taken seriously.

At the present time the main thing is to oust the Tories. The ONLY way this can be done at the moment is to get Labour back in. OK, they are just the lesser of the two evils, but we have a better chance with them than with the Tory fascists.
Like it or not, there is no way the Green Party, for instance, could garner a majority vote, or any where near it. They are also far too inexperienced and naive even if they did.
What else do you recommend Johnny, armed rebellion and a descent into civil war??

The problem with that is that at the NEXT election the same thing will be said, and the election after that, ad infinitum.

Things will never change, and that will suit both Tories and Lab just fine.

Voting for SNP, Greens, TUSC, Class War, etc this time may not result in seats won, but a massive swing away from the traditional parties of all colours would be a quiet revolution in itself, and at least something to build on.

Also, I think it was only 65% of the electorate actually voted last time. If the abstaining 35% were to weigh in with their votes in favour of the smaller parties… could be interesting.

Glad you said that. Saved me writing the same. Main thing being to oust the Tories? — such a position is too often the solace of the middle-class ‘radical’, sitting in his gentrified neighbourhood, thinking he is a socialist by voting Labour…. ignoring what Labour actually does, what it represents. Like you say, it all goes on and on with no sign of ending, and this is aided by the fraudulent idea that Labour represents a real opposition.

I reckon we should be voting AND doing grassroots activism. Older folks have politicians running scared because they vote in huge numbers. Young people get shat on because they don’t. However, voting alone is worthless without people getting of their arses to shout about the things they care about, but also to learn about the things they care about. We need more engagement, not less, and voting is part of that. At this point, turfing out Dave is the most effective way of moving things forward.

“Voting for SNP…this time may not result in seats won” Really. have you been following the Polls. the SNP is on track to become the 3rd biggest party in the UK and hold the balance of power, which it will use to pull a minority Labour government to the left. That doesn’t sound like a protest vote to me – it sounds more like the start of a revolution..

The shadow Work & Pensions secretary, Rachel Reeves, would be insulted to hear her party described as ‘the lesser of the two evils’. You may recall her promise that Labour would be tougher on welfare than the Tories. She has also said ‘We’re not the party of people on benefits. We’re not the party to represent those who are out of work.’

Labour and the Tories are equally bad. I would not be physically capable of voting for either party, whatever tactical calculations were urged in favour of doing so.

Yeah, too many peeps thinking that if we all vote Labour they will get a few quid extra on their disability benefit or whatever, just enough ££s mind you, to buy their silence. Then they can say: “fuck this, I’m all right my disability benefits or whatever are safe”. You never know Labour might even try this on so the public don’t see any more peeps in wheelchairs queuing at food-banks… which will leave Labour free to put the boot really hard into those less likely to arouse public sympathy i.e young people, the unemployed, those without kids… and for Labour’s target group who are really going to suffer under Labour’s plans and for them life, if you can call it that, is going to be a hell of a lot worse than under the Tories. In a lot of ways Labour are actually worse, you could say ‘fairer’ than the Tories, in at least the Tories are less discriminate, and not politically correct in who they go after.

QUOTE: The ONLY way [we can oust the Tories] is to get Labour back in.

MY REPLY: Not true. Just because a small party hasn’t won before – does NOT mean they never will. Sure, they won’t win overnight. But by voting for them we force NeolibLabour to give us more than half arsed promises if they want to stay. This will force them to improve.

More importantly we’ll build up new parties & jam the 2 party system. This will free us from feeling stuck between choosing the least horrible of 2 corruptive parties & enables up to give genuine parties a change & gradual parliamentary experience. This enables small parties to mature, gain experience & show us what they’re made of. Then if they’re good & remain uncorrupted – the voting masses will put them in charge. Give it 5 – 10 years.

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in one day. And neither are political movements.

It’s attitudes like yours Mik that have us in the state we’re in. Labour will hardly be any better than the Tories, dedicated as they are to a neo-liberal strain of economics that basically shits on the poor and needy. They have signed up to all the Tories austerity figures of £30 billion! How is that going to help struggling people?.

Doesn’t have to be a majority vote. The more SNP, Green, Plaid Cymru MP’s that are elected, the more they can pressure and push for change and a better standard of politics in Westminster.

I used to vote Labour but i never will again as they have stabbed the true Labour people in the back constantly. Until they return to the far left of the spectrum they will never get my vote.. In fact even if they do they’ll never get my vote.

The SNP (who are abhorrent but that’s beside the point) would never have been elected if everyone truly believed their only choice was the ‘lesser of two evils’ and that no smaller party could ever rise to the top. UKIP were third in total votes cast and the Greens got loads as well yet they only got two seats between them because of the stupid way the vote is decided. That’s not a minor result for them, that’s a clear message from a large amount of the electorate that they’re not happy with how things are.

No DWP Press Releases since 26th March 2015. Mr Brand is so full of shit, he always has been. Every one will be moaning by the end of the year that the election has still not been sorted out. These crappy deals the MPs are gonna try & sort out makes a mockery of the voters. The UK Voting System Not Fit For Purpose.

Don’t know very much about Russel Brand – think he hopped onto the bandwagon to get publicity when he helped those who had taken over a house on an estate. I for one, will switch over to another channel whenever he appears on the screen – let’s hit him in his pocket when the viewing ratings go down. Would not vote Labour if you paid me

You may knock Maggie’s Youth Training Schemes but I started my working life via them, they got me the experience and qualifications I needed to get where I am today, I’m not in very high paid job but I earn a living, a living that I can pay my bills with, puts food on my table in front of my kids, allows me to buy the things I want and I can even afford to buy my kids Christmas presents… The thing with today’s youth is they want it all right now and the big bad world just doesn’t work like that, why should employers have to pay over the odds for someone with absolutely no experience?? The sooner these kids realise that they are not worth the type of pay they’re after the better..

Why don’t you get a better paid job then, even if it’s only slighty better paid? With your work history, experience and qualifications it shouldn’t be all that difficult. The UK is creating more jobs than the rest of Europe put together, according to the Selfservatives. There’s 745,000 ‘jobs’ on Universal Jobmatch and you only need just one of them!

why should employers have to pay over the odds for someone with absolutely no experience?

How come both my parents left school one day and started work the very next day. A couple of decades later I left school, applied for 2 jobs, and started paid work in 2 weeks. – No benefits, ‘training courses’, or forced unpaid work involved anywhere.
How did we manage 150+ years of industrial revolution without all this unpaid work especially for shelfstacking, it’s ridiculous.

I don’t need a better paid job, I’m quite happy where I am… the grass isn’t always greener, and yes, you’re right I have no problems getting a job, I’m lucky to have a job where I’m always in demand, afterall there are only approx 50,000 of us in the country doing my job (MOT tester) and like your parents I started work the day after I left school, I went into the motor trade and I don’t know about other trades but even at the top the pay is low, apprentice wages are a pittance but in this trade it has always been that way because believe or not cars and engines are pretty complicated things and a lack of training/experience will more than likely end in somebody’s death, it’s takes 3 years of college to become “fully qualified” and then you still don’t know it all, a YTS or whatever you want to call it these days replacement for a fully qualifed/experienced mechanic just would not work, I’ve been in this trade for almost 26 years and it’s never going to change.. you break your back for ungrateful bosses, customers etc.. but for some reason we love doing it… by the way I’m not a tory voter and I’ll never vote for them in a million years… I grew up in a council estate household, I know first hand what it was like for my parents to struggle to make ends meet while Maggie was in charge so words like Selfseratives won’t wind me up but resonate with me.. as for 150 years of industrial revolution well there were workhouses for starters and also free education for all children didn’t exist until 1918.. life wasn’t all roses and it still isn’t, we all have to start somewhere and it usually starts with low pay…

@Another Fine Mess
I’m a now retired electronics engineer but if I needed to find work there isn’t any in my area. I can (and do) work part-time as a freelance but that’s pin money. There isn’t enough work around to pay a full-time wage.

When Thatcher’s schemes were going, I overheard (and was perhaps meant to overhear, along with my fellow employees) the bosses deciding to ‘hire’ a YOP placement to fill a vacancy so that they wouldn’t have to pay. It was quite as brazen as that. They didn’t seem particularly worried about the prospective worker’s lack of experience.

So you were lucky, and now you’re promoting mass workfare instead of jobs that pay anything, let alone a living wage. You don’t realize how rare it is even to ‘earn a living’ without top-up means-tested benefits — that has become riches nowadays. And you think it’s too much to ask for.

YOPS was just a corrupt scheme to get young workers for nothing. The scheme was changed to the slightly less corrupt YTS scheme as a result of the scandal of YOPS that was widely seen at the time for what it was – just a scheme that employres could, and did exploit. The young people press ganged into taking up YOPS and YTS knew they were being exploited, and that didn’t help, as slave labour might seem like a good idea, but the quality of the work leaves a lot to be desired. I could never blame the young people being exploited by the likes of Tesco way back in the late 70s when these schemes first saw light of day (under, yes, you’ve guessed it, Labour with nary a murmur from the TUC unions) for making a mess of the job. There were no bar codes back then, so all items were individually priced with a label, which was often wrongly applied by the young people. They either put too high a price, or too low a price on the items, which, when obvuous, caused much mayhem at the tills, but when not so obvious must have cost the companies a lot of money.

Most young people want to work – they don’t mind starting at the bottom to gain experience and can work towards qualifications if they want. However, these training schemes are compulsory – are the people who will be training them qualified? When the Youth Opportunity Scheme was introduced there were lots of young people on it – I know for a fact that there were people attempting to train young people who were not qualified themselves. An absolute waste of time for young people. It will be private firms that are gaining free labour once again under the guise of any training scheme. Why don’t employers just give them a paid job and provide on-site training.

Sad to say that any ‘training’ on offer is likely to be NVQ crap that is delivered not in terms of quality, but in terms of cheapness of cost, and exists merely to indicate that the UK has a workforce that has lots of paper qualifications so that it can hold it’s head up when compared with countries like France and Germany.

Employers providing training would be a great idea, if it was regulated by an independent body and was well funded so that the training delivered was to an aceptable standard. But increasingly employers want workers who have been trained by the schools – sadly the Tories and Labour saps don’t seem to know that there is a difference between education and training.

I am a believer that education should be entirely about the benefits to the recipient of the education, first and foremost, and not about the creation of an ‘oven ready’ workforce that those in power want.

A truly educated workforce would work in it’s own interest, which could also be in the interests of the boss class, but equally not be in the interests of the exploiters if it didn’t also suit the workers. A truly educated and thinking workforce would be very scary to governments, and employers though.

It will be McTraining – a concept invented by a well-known fast-‘food’ chain. McTraining where the production process is broken down into discrete units and employers are ‘trained’ to do ONE specific task. This has many benefits for employers/business – it keeps employees low-skilled and less marketable, making it easier to retain staff – the employee ain’t going anywhere, and they don’t have any marketable skills to “sell” to a higher bidder. A highly-marketable skill-set that will command a good income wont be on offer. The only ‘training’ will be on offer will be the usual job centre/work programme fare of certificates in dish-washing, food hygiene and manual handling.

Iain Duncan Smith will be writing you a thank-you note for helping the Tories win this election.

The predominant focus of your blog is workfare so I fully understand your indignation at Labour’s policy. But you are willfully blind to Labour’s firm pledge to abolish the bedroom tax, which will greatly ameliorate the plight
of Britain’s sick and disabled.

The Tories have promised £12bn of further welfare cuts and other draconian measures, ensuring benefit claimants a worse fate under their regime than under Labour’s.

sam
i wouldn’t worry, it’s highly likely that labour will get enough seats to form a govt with the help of other parties…imv, the only reason that the labour party are worth voting for is coz they’re NOT the tories in most peoples minds r.uk, and that also the snp/plaid/greens et al, might bring to them refreshing help….labour have already said that they’ll be tougher on welfare than the tories… http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/scottish-labour-leadership-crisis.html

OBD
I’ve always been a little unsure as to whether this means tougher on welfare CLAIMANTS or on the CAUSES (ie unemployment) of people needing welfare. Or am I just being naive? Whilst Labour have obviously decided that in the present climate (created by unopposed Tory propaganda) it would be electoral suicide to side with benefit claimants, it’s still possible once/if they win on Thursday we will see a change in that position. Of course, it’ll still be far from perfect, but they’re not shy of mentioning foodbanks and it would be pretty difficult to bemoan the need for them without also mentioning the main cause for that need (ie benefit sanctions). They would also have to come up with a pretty convincing apology for their piss-poor cowardice in not robustly refuting the “undeserving poor” rhetoric. One way of doing this would be to start any term of government with a proper purge of the New Labour/Progress tendency, but I ain’t holding my breath.
Perhaps I’m indulging in massive wishful-thinking, but where I live there’s only 4 candidates (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem & UKIP) standing in what is a Tory-held marginal, so there’s only one realistic choice of damaging the Tories and that’s to hold my nose and vote Labour. God, what a choice!

tim
as the number of jobs has plummeted by 40% in 35yrs and over the last few yrs only 1in40 new jobs are full time, tax take has plummeted as has decent incomes for all…and the unlikely £bns/£trl investment in revitalizing the local economy, coz, lets be kind, shifted out of our wallets and moved offshore….moving from unpaking goods in ware houses and retail, to an economy where we make things…the only thing it can be/mean is tough on claimants, and kind on their portfolios… allofusfirst.org…

The problem is that I might vote with grave reservations for Lab, but my resevations are not registered, and my vote will be considered to endorse anything the party might do !00%.

How many who voted Bliar in to get rid of the Tories also voted for Iraq ?

Labour, elected with a majority, will broadly continue allong the same path, because they are broadly singing from the same hymn sheet.

Possibly the best result we can hope for this time around is for Labour in a coalition with parties that might restrain their excesses, which might just encourage the few remaining Lab MPs with any left leanings to come out and kick arse.

Sadly I wouldn’t be totally suprised if instead they chose a Lab/Lib pact (assume the Lib Dems still exist at the end of the week !) or even… Lab/Con ? Is it really so hard to believe that could happen ? I might have thought so nce, but now…

Samuel Miller said: “The Tories have promised £12bn of further welfare cuts and other draconian measures, ensuring benefit claimants a worse fate under their regime than under Labour’s.”

Sorry to burst your Labour party bubble Samuel but Rachel Reeves announced months ago that a Labour government were going to be “tougher on welfare than the tories” and also announced they didn’t want to represent anyone on benefits. You seem to be slightly mixed up.

But Labour have promised those same social security cuts themselves, They also propose to end ALL benefits to everyone under 21, and to increase workfare, and actually support the present sanctions system. Only they aim to be “fairer” with their sanctions! Not for nothing are ppl calling Labour the Red Tories. The only real major difference between the two of them being merely the color of ties they use!

He has nearly 10 million Twitter followers; his YouTube interview with Ed Miliband received well over a million hits and counting; he is listened to by hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Britons, particularly young people who have been repeatedly kicked over the last few years. Russell Brand matters.

And however much bluff and bluster the Tories now pull – maybe more playground abuse from David Cameron, who called Brand a “joke” – his endorsement of Labour in England and Wales will worry them. More people have registered to vote than ever before: between the middle of March and the deadline to register, nearly 2.3 million registered, over 700,000 of them 24 years old or younger. In countless marginal seats, disillusioned voters who were either going to plump for a protest party or not vote at all could well decide whether we are ruled by David Cameron, George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith for another half a decade.

One prediction has Tories and Labour equally on about 270 seats on Thursday.

SNP could get 50 or 54 or even all 59 in Scotland.

Plaid Cymru should rise from its mere 3 seats to get more of the 40 seats in Wales. The Welsh do not realise that Plaid Cymru has saved the devolved NHS from England’s worst austerity cuts.

But the only way for us new pensioners from 2016 to be left with just £38 per week after 45 years work when the current pension is £113.10 per week or EVEN NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE.
See why at end of my petition, in my WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT, section, at:https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

Is to bring 113 TUSC MPs in England.

All seats are marginals. The bulk of voters did not vote in 2010, which had the same voter turnout as 1918 after the carnage of the first world war.

Only TUSC OFFERS:

– Reverse rise in retirement age

– Pay Decent State pension (payable if remain in job or lose it)

– Pay £10 per hour living wage.

An MP can bring about a Statutory Instrument that gives 28 days notice and within 5 weeks of the election, laws can be amended to strip out the welfare cuts, the end of the state pension, and many other cruelties done by the Tories.

113 MPs bringing in an SI, would force Labour’s hands as well as the SNP (48 to 59 seats) and Plaid Cymru (3 or up to 40 seats) and maybe the DUP of Ulster (around 8 predicted seats), who also don’t like welfare cuts.

TUSC’s 113 MPs could have cut the Lib Dems (the only possible coalition partner to the Tories) even below the predicted 15 left from Thursday.

326 MP is the minimum threshold for a party or a group of parties to rule the UK parliament.

270 Labour, 113 TUSC, around 50 SNP, 3 or 40 Plaid Cymru, are well above that and would be a powerful coaltion that would lock the Tories out of power.

113 TUSC MPs would do the scrutiny of proving the deaths from welfare reform like no other party currently in power.

This is the Vote or Starve election.

This is the Vote or Work til you die or starve if you can’t in old age.

It’d be impossible for Plaid Cymru to get more than 40 seats in Wales because there are only 40 seats in Wales! It’s unlikely that Plaid will make any significant gains, as Wales seems still to be rather wedded to the Labour Party. There are defections in many areas, but sadly that’s more towards UKIP than any other party. Plaid may take Llanelli and Ynys Môn, but it’s unlikely to have that much impact where it really matters, in the south east sort of within 30 miles radius of Cardiff where more than two thirds of the population lives. I’m not saying, that if Plaid gets it’s act together and starts promoting the same policies everywhere. At present it seems to support one thing in one location, and oppose that same one thing in a different area, depending on how support/opposition will affect it’s likely vote. Plaid is very much like the SNP in terms of it’s political make up, encompassing both the far left and the conservative right, (but not the proto-fascist right that it is often accused of harbouring – such is the illiteracy amongst much of the so called ‘internationalist’ left). To gain traction in the vital South East would require Plaid adopting a radical left stance in terms of policies, and they’d need to take over local authorities in order to prove that they can deliver. This is not beyond being a possibility, even in the south east, and since the late 60s Plaid has always seen healthy support in the South Wales Valleys, for example. In the end, Labour always seems to win the day, but now that the SNP is poised to make huge gains in Scotland, this may be the cue for Plaid to up it’s game, and also for people in South East Wales, (where the bulk of the population lives) to start to change allegiances.

QUOTE: It is astonishing… that as soon as a rich person publicly denounces capitalism then the leader of a main political party dashes round their house and steers them gently back onto the path of neo-liberalism.

Classic line, Johnny Void 🙂

Sums up whatever Owen Jones tries to brainwash us with that it’s “either Tory or Labour”. Of course our choices get narrowed to 2 most bribed atrocities – when Owen dismisses all small party candidates as “protest parties” – by not even naming them.

In a true democracy, I expect a newspaper to cover EVERY party standing for a general election. Followed by short description of their history, what they stand for, their candidates & how many votes they have. In addition it should state from where & how much money each of them receive in donations.

Have a missed something, or hasn’t any journalist bothered to do this simple list? Why do we only get to see 16 or so parties once we hit the ballots, whilst only reading about 5 of them in the newspapers?

You may have 10 million followers but not one of them are going to lift a finger more than that to act. Celebrity Political X Factor. Leave the country then, most people can`t afford to move country. Celebrity Failures.

To not have to face up to the DWP Deaths no one runs the country as leader because of the countless Elections over the next 2 years. Let`s string it out for 5 years we will only need an election every 6 months after the 1st 2 years. No one takes responsibility for the DWP & the DWP have halted press releases since 26th March 2015.

Good Examples of Nazi Racism and Brutality in Russia include Occupied Taganrog where during the Nazi Occupation there was a bench in Gorky Park which said Nur fuer Deutsche Only for Germans and the Usage of Children as Forced Blood Donors and also the Gully of Petrushino Massacre at which over 7,000 Soviet Citizens were Murdered by the Nazi Brutes

I joined the Labour Party at the defeat of last election. I don’t agree with them blindly 100%. In fact i argue from within A LOT. I email my concerns and go to meetings as much as possible. This policy on Welfare especially riles me. But you know i will VOTE for them. I want the Tories our. But the work is only just beginning. A revolution that you want could be decades away. I havnt got that time. Though i applaud you x

I doubt it’s decades… Maybe a few years… Let’s see what happens in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. Syrzia is in government in Greece, Podemos will probably do very well in Spain (already has 5 MEPs and it came from nothing only a very short while before the election). Ireland has an anti-water charge campaign involving thousands, a campaign that is about a lot more than just water, but that is the catalyst.

Labour are slightly a better choice than the Tories, but they won’t do anything that will overturn the neo-liberal austerity agenda that will continue to further enrich the already obscenely wealthy at the expense of all the rest.

I don’t think a revolution is decades away, but quite possibly coming in the next few years, but who knows when, as revolutions tend to be somewhat spontaneous affairs… I just hope that there isn’t a Bolshevik party somewhere in the wings waiting to hijack it from us… yes, I mean assorted Trots, Leninists and Marxists who only represent their own interests.

Reblogged this on The Heckler and commented:
If any of you are thinking that Labour offer any viable alternative to the chinless toffs who have been running the show for the last five years, read this piece from The Void. Take your time, let it sink in and then draw your own conclusions… Hopefully, you’ll be joining us on the streets this summer:)

Nor me Raining. The minute I see some rich celebrity type endorsing a cause, that’s the cue for me to turn away and puke Their hypocrisy sticks in my craw. I detest them. They are all over the world of animal rights and animal welfare and they make highlighting the truth almost impossible. Often they are actively (if naively) working against the very cause they support.

Ricky Gervais is a case in point. He’s done a lot of posing with animals and has someone running his Twitter account, spewing forth animal rights soundbites, jumping on the back of any cause his publicists think will garner him more followers/airtime (currently Canned Hunting & SeaWorld). He supports and has done big ad campaigns for PETA. PETA have a higher kill rate in their animal shelter than any other organisation in the USA. Yep, he supports them, but they steal and kill pets. What a fabulous chap he is.

I don’t believe that even one of these millionaire, media “personalities” has a genuine and informed commitment to the causes they leech onto and consequently, they have not one ounce of integrity either.

So the Tories will have to change their leader, Boris is in the running. Boris Tory – R. Brand Labour leader. Let`s have a poll on twitter. Much more modern now. The new person in the running has just won Celebrity Political X Factor. People will bore of voting once we have the 2nd Election in Sep 2015. The low turnout has spoken.

I think he has been clever to gain the attention of those who think they’re too cool to vote, then last minute unleash what everybody knows he was for anyway. Only Labour can get rid of the Tories. Only Labour would work for more affordable housing in London etc. Only Labour can stop the social cleansing of London.

“Labour’s mass workfare plans go way beyond anything the Tory Party have pledged…”

Please may you qualify that statement, please.

The reality is that Labour have not said what the “training” is, where we know reading the Tory manifesto (pg 18) that the so-called Youth Allowance for 18-21 yr olds will *definitely* require “community work” (if not training, or an apprenticeship), with an end to housing benefit for this age group. The removal of HB for 18 -21 yr olds does not appear in the Labour manifesto, though there is talk of an ‘expectation’ to stay with parents here:

Okay, it looks like we might have some kind of Labour led government after Thursday that is, so it says, going to axe the Bedroom Tax, plus toss us a few extra crumbs. But how about we start our own campaign based on what we want?

We could start by demanding that sanctions are abolished, that anyone over the age of 18 is legally an adult, so should be treated as an adult, i.e. not ‘cut price’ deals in terms of benefits or not being allowed enough housing benefit/housing benefit at all so that they can get their own place, should they wish (disallowing rights to full housing benefit is a way of masking real housing need)

We could go further and present our own ideas about how the unemployed, the disabled and the sick should fare in our societies, or we could just decide to abolish the notion of separate subsistence benefits for just a narrow range of groups and decide that we want citizen’s income for all that basically abolishes the whole concept of unemployment once and for all.

I’m sure that many of us could ideas to a list like this, but the key is to be broad in appeal so as not to get bogged down in too much detail, with the associated risks of splits developing in the movement. They will inevitably happen down the line, so a broad list of acheivable things that would improve life for everyone is what to focus on in the short to medium term.

Parliament left hanging for ages with a hung parliament, while the hanging tree bows more. Anything to get out of Human Rights & Equality for disabled people. My wheelchair is left hanging because I didn`t put the brake on & am hung on hanging on in a hung wheelchair.

nothings changed then, the scottish vote has never made any difference… except to crush the political aspirations of the scottish people, hmmm?!
and we all know what lit a fire under those aspirations don’t we….?
there’s no going back into our boxes noo…. 🙂

Excellent article, Johnny. Didn’t RB win the Nobel Peace Prize recently though? Or was it S*****er of the Year? Or was it the Plain English Campaign’s Foot in Mouth award for 2014?
Oh, it’s all so confusing…

That disingenuous, smug fucker Cameron mentioned the “note about no money”* TWICE to John Humphries on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning. Both times Humphries let it go unchallenged. Have interviewers just got fed up with challenging Cameron about this and like a spoilt kid who won’t give back the lollipop just let him slip it past. Or does Humphries and Co. think that we already know that its a crock and are just letting Cameron show himself up as the slippery cunt that he is?

* A RUNNING JOKE from one Chancellor to the next: “There is no money. We spent it all”.

Great Article. It’s incredible how far the Labour party have fallen and the extent to which they have betrayed the working class. They can quite rightly be classed as Tory lite these days.

I will be voting Green in this election as they are now the strongest party with a left of centre outlook. Those of us on the left of the Green party are determined to bring about real change in a political system that is rotten to the core.

I find it incredible that the working class in the UK are so disengaged from politics that they just accept what is being done to them. The all tut and shake their heads but where is the class action??

Reblogged this on The sound of summer and commented:
Great Article. It’s incredible how far the Labour party have fallen and the extent to which they have betrayed the working class. They can quite rightly be classed as Tory lite these days.

I will be voting Green in this election as they are now the strongest party with a left of centre outlook. Those of us on the left of the Green party are determined to bring about real change in a political system that is rotten to the core.

I find it incredible that the working class in the UK are so disengaged from politics that they just accept what is being done to them. The all tut and shake their heads but where is the class action??

After the furore over “Two Jags”‘ Prescott, the epithet “12 homes Meacher” could become a fresh embarrassment for Labour – not helped by the fact that Mr Meacher does not want to come clean on exactly how many homes he owns. His entry in the register of members’ interests says tersely “Flats let in London.”

I see no future for most of the population after this election. Tories=Nazis; UKIP= Nazis; Labour = Nazis – there’s no REAL difference between them, they all aspire to the same things Rich= Good Poor=Bad

Grumbling will Not Solve Social InJustice should the Nasty Tories
get Back into Office upon the 7th of May 2015

Nicolas Tennant | May 5, 2015 at 7:28 pm | Reply

I joined the Labour Party at the defeat of last election. I don’t agree with them blindly 100%. In fact i argue from within A LOT. I email my concerns and go to meetings as much as possible. This policy on Welfare especially riles me. But you know i will VOTE for them. I want the Tories our. But the work is only just beginning. A revolution that you want could be decades away. I havnt got that time. Though i applaud you x

Stopped reading after “Millionaires who feel a bit guilty about poverty and stuff but don’t want to change things too much.” – because if you even read or followed anything brand says, you’d know the absolute falsehood of your attempt to compartmentalise him.

The Tory minister for disabled people appears to have accidentally admitted what many disabled activists feared: that a Conservative government would cut the out-of-work benefits of people with mental health conditions if they refused treatment.

In a debate broadcast on local radio, Mark Harper strongly suggested that people with mental health problems would be among the group with “long-term yet treatable” conditions who could be sanctioned if they refused treatment.

The pledge to review whether such sanctions should be introduced is included in the Tory manifesto, under a promise to “review how best to support those suffering from long-term yet treatable conditions, such as drug or alcohol addiction, or obesity, back into work”.

It adds: “People who might benefit from treatment should get the medical help they need so they can return to work.

“If they refuse a recommended treatment, we will review whether their benefits should be reduced.”

But the party has refused to confirm that people with mental health conditions would be among this group facing potential sanctions.

Disabled activists have described the plans as “wild, stupid”, “unconscionable”, and “highly dangerous”, while the Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, who chaired the Commons health select committee in the last parliament, has said on Twitter that sanctions linked to medical treatment would be “unethical”.

So they cut psychiatric services again and again, so that often those desperate for help can’t get it; and when there are far too many and increasing numbers of people with depression and anxiety-type conditions for it to be a policy to do more than hand out drugs and be maybe put on the list for some talking therapy… and suddenly there is going to be treatment available for all these people? How could that be achievable?

Really, the only part of such a scheme soon achievable is the sanctions part, and that’s all any of it would be aimed at anyway.

Meanwhile, number-one psychopath IDS (with associates) has been left at liberty insanely to damage as many people as he can manage to do.

If someone with a dangerous psychiatric condition murdered someone, there would be a big outcry about it, and loss of liberty. Yet we have someone enforcing policies which shorten the lives of thousands and more across the country, as well as directly leading to who-knows-how-many deaths, and the perpetrator has immunity from any charges. Nothing is done about it.

While the most effective treatment needed to improve many people’s mental health is to stop persecuting them into the grave. A treatment which actually is right now achievable. By – just stop doing it.

Wirral West MP Esther McVey pulls out of live radio interview in Liverpool city centre

Liverpool Echo – 28th April 2015

Employment Minister was due to be broadcast from LBC’s election Battle Bus in Liverpool ONE

Wirral West MP Esther McVey this morning pulled out of a live radio interview in Liverpool city centre.

Radio station LBC brought its election Battle Bus to Liverpool ONE as part of a countrywide tour ahead of polling day on May 7.

The public will be able to watch the show on live screens as it is aired between 7am to 10am outside John Lewis, with LBC reporters looking for Merseyside voters to express their opinions on the topics for debate.

Ms McVey, the Employment Minister, was due to be interviewed on the show, but ECHO reporter Joe Thomas – who is on board the Battle Bus – tweeted: “Last night’s rumour was correct and Esther McVey has pulled out of today’s live interview in Liverpool city centre.”

It’s easy people, you just stop doing what you do. Work is war on your K (conciousness), tax is takes, mort guage is a death sentence, currency is your energy which you give to them willingly. Invest in the internal. Vote with your heart. the elect-ion is in earn-est now and your destination depends on wisdom not repetition of foolishness. Many are going before others, and we wait for you to catch up. The miraculous awaits, when you wake up and realise it. In the meantime it’s hard and painful. Let’s make sure we are the last to need to take such drastic measures in our lives. Have some balls and walk away from ALL of it. Society is an embarrassment, and if you support any of this nonsense…

Of course.
Most people do not understand the risk; to whit you live and work until you are late fifties+ and have have handed over all your money to the state, and If it all comes right the political parties will ruin everything in touch.
We know these wankers are gone by the 24’th C, so why not a Vulcan Lirpa? Asasinate these fools.

I disagree with your verdict on Brand. He’s never been so villified since he started joining up with ordinary people to amplify their campaigns. He’s villified for saying ‘there’s no point in voting’ and now he’s villified for changing his mind and realising that actually, there is. His message isn’t vote labour and go back to bed – it’s vote labour and then hold them to account through massive mobilisation, direct action, and voting Green where you can! His model is a Labour party held to account by people power and other more radical parties – surely a bloody good thing!

“””Hackney Council said about 100 people were thought to be affected and issued a statement which said enabling people to vote was an “absolute priority”.

“Due to issues caused by the new Individual Electoral Registration system we did not receive some applications until late into the process, as details were cross checked by the Department for Work and Pensions, via the government’s new online registration service.”

It said voters did not need a polling card to vote, but just needed to give their name and address to staff at their polling station. “”””

No polling card required has been in effect since before last time I voted (I presented my bank statement and Visa card). I was informed if somebody tried to vote a second time police would be informed, so its pretty blulddy risky what with prison terms as a likely sentence.

Having Voted to Get the Tories and Liberal Democrats Out of Office
and Not For UKIP Either I was netherless annoyed that people with Tory and
UKIP Rosettes were Able to be so close to the Polling Area and
try to ask for my Card Details

Maybe do a little research before you right an article like this, Russell brand does so much more than YouTube videos for less privileged people, he campaigns on the streets, donates 100% of the profits of his books and gigs and merch to his charities and campaigns that he’s supporting… And as for changing his stance on voting this election, read this: http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/7223266

taero
he gets to choose how to distribute his income…the poor precarious classes don’t….charity is an extremely poor way of redistribution of wealth…it is much better done in decent wages for all and/or a citizens income…. http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/socialcharter/Conclusions/State/UKXX2_en.pdf benefits in the uk are manifestly inadequate…. a decent income, the preservation of human dignity are vital for health and wellbeing of the individual and our whole culture…

I’m pleased that it has now all been confirmed as a bit of a jejeune wind-up,situationist gag.Seriously the zitbuster generation are easily entranced by shiny baubles on social media.THEY are the ones who would actually end up putting another demagogue into power.

Having a Walk beginning of this Morning I saw to my Disgust a Tory Poster put on an disused/abandoned Building which Symbolised the Ruination of Great Britain under the ” Conservatives ” so I Tore it down and put it where it Belongs in the Rubbish Bin like Thatcherism in General

That is the 4th Poster Flyposted on an Empty/Disused/Abandoned Building whichI have Tore Down as it is an Insult to All the Poor who have Suffered under the Nutcase Tory Regime

Should the Tories Not Win a Majority and they Try to Hold Onto to
Power the Country Need’s to Get Out and Protest En Masse
Saying the Tories are Not Fit to Govern the UK and Demanding
that any Tory Coups to Stay in Office are Ended and the Tories
leave Downing Street

The clock is ticking down to the General Election and you might still be in two minds as to how you’ll use your vote.

But that shouldn’t be the case when it comes to having a political punt.

Because even though there is little to choose between the Conservative and Labour parties 😀 there is money to be made by placing a bet on Election 2015. 🙂

Top Election Markets!

Most Seats
The Tories are the market leaders at 1/5. But with most recent opinion polls putting the parties level at 32 per cent the 7/2 on the Labour Party winning the most seats could prove a shrewd move.
BET NOW › 😀

Prime Minister On July 1st
Conservatives may head the market where winning seats is concerned but it seems the bookies are less convinced about their leader staying in power. David Cameron and Ed Miliband are level pegging at 10/11 to be the PM on July 1st with Nigel Farage a distant 100/1.
BET NOW › 😀

Post-Election Government
A Labour minority appears the most likely option at 2/1 with a Conservative majority a distant 10/1. Odds of 3/1 suggest no change to the current Con/Lib Dems alliance while it’s 8/1 that the Lib Dems ditch Cameron in favour of Ed Miliband.
BET NOW › 😀 “

If we had PR we could all in the UK vote SNP. That would really have shown the labour party how little trust we have in them and how nasty and cruel the sanction regime is. We need labour supporters in Scotland to vote SNP to give a voice to the anti austerity groups.

The financial bookies (spread-betting) called this one correct! If you had bought the Tories and sold Labour even as late as yesterday you would have made a tidy sum. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. As for the bookies – “Conservative majority a distant 10/1.” – at the moment Cameron only needs one to achieve this. What would have proved costly here was believing and putting any faith in those horse-shit polls.

There is something suspicious about these polls (an ‘investigation’ is now under-way lol) There aim is obviously to manipulate something; first thing that springs to mind is public opinion, but maybe it is more to manipulate betting/financial markets. If you had been influenced by these polls you would have lost your shirt.

If those polls are correct and if you bought Labour and sold the Tories you would make a tidy profit. £1 on Labour and £1 on the Tories would net you £22 🙂 Or one weeks JSA at £73.10 would net £804.10 🙂 Can’t be that easy. 😀

ALL politicians are crooks, they should have limited time as a MP, before being banned for being ones.. they should be held accountable for any broken promises. in a true democracy there should be NO safe seats.. and all MP’s should have to be forced to take psychological testing to see if they are a psychopath/sociopath.. real people need to be in charge people with experience of reality. not the professional politicians we have the ones who have all the same qualifications all the same thoughts.. get rid of the political degrees and if you have one ban you from every being a member of parliament

Just voted SNP – loads of people were on their way – holding their Polling cards. Pleased to note that there was a disabled ramp for people using wheel-chairs. First time I have ever been in a queue to vote!!!!!!

Aye LOL! I hope it’s a night when the Labour party are given the warmest of welcomes! I know all Jim’s scaremongering about “All these polls for the SNP are great news for David Cameron because it means he stays in number 10” has been going constantly the last few weeks. But i just can’t bring myself to vote for the Labour party after what they’ve done.

I want to vote for something instead of against something. Labour to me are indeed ‘Red Tories’ as they basically are for the same cuts the Tories are for. But stretched out over a longer period of time i believe.

I’m just praying it comes through for the SNP tonight. I want a real thrashing for Labour to pay them back for what Murphy, Brown et al did on the run up to the referendum. I think tonight the chickens will come home to roost and Labour will learn a bitter lesson about treating Scotland like a ‘Branch Office’

there’s chatter about him being supported by tory votes…!! which beguiles their cries of the snp being an undemocratic vote, coz they’re not a uk wide party…40+ seats will be good…the 52+, msm are claiming seems pie in the sky to me….

Did you see that interview thing he did on STV with Bernard Ponsonby the other night on Scotland Tonight? The classic politicians tactic was used by Murphy and he got away with it. He talked constantly over Bernard and wouldn’t let him get in to cross examine! Every time he tried to get in auld Jim was in full flight and was talking so quick the host couldn’t fire off any of his questions!

It actually was very annoying. Ponsonby was getting ready to nail him with some difficult question but couldn’t get an opening while Murphy’s tirade went on.

BTW OBD i agree with you on the seats. I don’t see it being over 50. There’s a lot of people who were undeclared and stuff so i don’t want to get my hopes up and then to be disappointed. All this talk that the SNP could win all 59 seats is just ridiculous.

lol – if you are Jim Murphy – I heard you years ago at a Planning Meeting – where I might add the public were not allowed to speak – I had to leave as I was laughing soooo much at what you had to say. I cannot believe that you have lasted in Politics – I would have sacked you instantly!!!!!

It’s a bullying assertion of unearned moral superiority. Voting is fine. Go, vote. But stop saying that people who disagree about this should be stripped of their rights. Alternately, if you keep saying it, well, we have a pretty good idea of how much you respect the idea that fundamental rights are for everyone, not just people you happen to like and agree with.

anyway trend this #disturbingreports….
vote or not vote, i vote, who cares, do that and change what we can as well…we need some sort of admin and when admin gets too big for it’s boots we need to bring it down a peg or three…all i care for, are reliable supplies of vitality giving vitals of life for all….

…………….A hastily cobbled together pack of lies by DWP nominated bureaucrats, paid to come up with what they were instructed…………..

.
Health impacts
21.
Income and health are related,
with those on low incomes having higher rates of disease, ill
health and mortality than those on high incomes. Ho
wever, evidence is limited as to whether
a change in income has an effect on health. DLA is intended to provide a cash contribution
to the extra costs associated with disability and complements a range of support available to
disabled people, including inco
me replacement benefits for those who are unable to work. It
is therefore not expect
ed that reducing one source of suppor
t for disabled people with lesser
barriers to participation will
have an adverse impact on health.
22.
It is possible that the policy could have positive
impacts on health if it leads to more disabled
people moving into work. Health impacts will be c
onsidered further as t
he detail of the policy
is developed.

“TRY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW, THE DWP ARE TRYING TO ERASE THE MURDER TRAIL”

Risk of negative impact
42.
The proposed policy change initially focu
ses on working age recipients (16-64)
and so they are more likely to be affected.
As regards the knock-on effects of the
policy, those in receipt of Carer’s Allo
wance, aged 35-64 are particularly likely to
be affected by the introduction of
Personal Independence Payment.
Conclusion
43.
This reform to DLA specifically focu
ses on those aged 16-64. More information on
how the needs of children aged 16 moving
from DLA to Personal Independence
Payment will be met is available in our consultation on the detailed design of
Personal Independence Payment:http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2012/pip-
detailed-design.shtml
.
The effects on carers as a resu
lt of the introduction of the
new policy reflect the demographic
profile of this group.

but as long as you are actively applying for any job that you have the skills to do then the monkeys at the jobcenter and no i dont mean the G4S rentacops. You will not get sanctioned. the ones who are getting sanctioned are those who miss appointments and do not give a good enough reason why they did not turn up or do not put enough effort in to “looking for work” I will have been unemployed for almost a year now in june, I have had around 15 interviews in that time, none have been bad with the feedback but even the low paid jobs such as order picking often turn me down for an interview. but i keep a record on line with universal jobmatch as i cant be fucked in writing it down in that shitty white book they give you and this seems to keep the monkeys happy.

those out of work are the ones getting fucked over by IDS with his hairbrained schemes that are not delivered on time.

ever notice that when ever that worm giddeion tilts his head to one side when he is being interviewed, add a bandanna and a gun in his hand tilted sideways and you have your very own tory gangsta

and what a bout that “recount” last time it was poll stations running out of ballot papers, and whats up with pudsy every time there is an election that part of the country allways has problems, shame on those who decided to go home rather than vote. you could have voted online or by post so dont blame the cues for not being able to vote. imo that makes you as spineless as the torys

sorry but as of now Scotland is still part of the united kingdom and this is what the government governs. once Scotland gets its interdependence Wales will be next along with Northern Ireland and Ireland.
infact lets split up the entire nation into States which have there own rules and taxes. then we can all become part of the united states of Europe which is where things are heading.

Labour lost the election in England. Even if all the SNP seats had went to Labour they still wouldn’t have won. It’s clear the English vote Tory, we in Scotland vote SNP. We are not compatible and there will be a new referendum, probably sooner rather than later.

Any country that votes for a party that wants to have foodbanks, zero hour contracts and workfare is a country we want nothing to do with.

Now that Fester McVile is out of a cushy job as IDS’ lackey, what’s the hope she will now have to sign in at her local job centre and be expected to look for work for 35 hrs a week and within six months be forced onto the work programme, being told what to do by her former boss?

I can’t believe the stupidity of the English. They’ve voted for five more years of a fat idle thicko as Prime Minister and a Chancellor who gets his advice from a crack fiend. They’ve voted to have human rights abolished, they’ve voted for higher rents, they’ve voted for higher utility and transport bills, they’ve voted for billionaires evading tax, they’ve voted not to have legal representation, they’ve voted for lower wages, they’ve voted for the state to interfere in their lives on an unprecedented scale through universal credit, they’ve voted for the destruction of the NHS, they’ve voted for the privatisation of anything the Tories can steal, they’ve voted for outsourcing and the loss of their own jobs, they’ve voted for the destruction of the welfare state, they’ve voted for ministers who piss away fortunes on failed projects that just happen to reward their supporters, they’ve voted for a party financed by non-dom billionaires, they’ve voted for a party that actually drives the poorest and most vulnerable to suicide.

This is what happens when you have an opposition party in name only. For five years Labour has said they’ll do the same as the Tories but be a little nicer about it when they should have been tearing apart every word from the government’s collection of crooks, liars and incompetents.

Five more years of this and even worse now Fat Dave knows how stupid the voters are. When’s the next Scottish referendum?

pete
there will not be UDI, the requirement is over 60% of voters demanding indyscotref then and other triggers ie in out euref where scots vote to stay and r.uk vote to leave (even though the uk state cannot remove uk citizens, eu citizenship)….the snp have promised to represent all scot citizens regardless of party affiliations…
this stance is widely backed by the scottish people…there will be another indyref likely before 2020, subject to manifesto mandate @ the 2016 scotparl elections…

That’s about the best summing-up of this catastrophic result and it’s likely consequences that I’ve read. Couldn’t have put it better. The Tories played the Great British Public for morons who, as ever, duly obliged. Looks like it’s By The Brick, then! At least McVile got the bullet, but still, small comfort.

If your young and have a world skill a set of universal skills ….get out of hear ,canada,Australia,Brazil….go run ,get away from this repulsive country go and make a better life for yourselves come on run…run ..run…get out of htear as for the rest of us the poor the disabled the unemployed fasted your seatbelts put your armour on its gonna get realy ruff,realy ruff ….god bless

noop
you’ve been told often enough, one more time….there is a built in tory vested interest core voter pool… which is why blair was described as thatchers finest achievement, the only way he could win power was by buying into thatcherism…wishing no oppression will not work, that’s behaviourism…. one has to set oneself free (as is possible in a toxic culture), this is an action and not an act of role play….see cold comfort pingback, above your post….oppression is ingrained/rubbed/£ed into psyche…caused by constant abuse and no remedy caused by venting expression of trapped emotions…

I definitely think that our security services have been utilised to bring about rigged voting.
It was evident in the Scottish referendum and made a good practice run for the ones held yesterday.
Any party having so much wealth and so many entitled members that would lose so much, will stop at nothing to gain dominance over it’s rivals……
The mood of the people is changing rapidly and the tory’s realise they are clinging on by a single thread that is becoming weaker, day by day.

You can control the media, but you cannot control the mood of those you wish to hush. We are a nation divided and the balance of power will be lost and won by the movement of the Scottish peoples choices.

You can live a life built upon lies but you ultimately have to grasp the truth at some point.
Accelerating backwards at an unprecedented speed is not the sign of a growing economy but that of abject failure.

The truly despicable, Esther the butcher, MCvey, got her comeuppance from those she laid to rest. 417 VOTES THAT RESONATE FROM BEYOND THE GRAVES OF THOSE SHE LAID TO REST.

Tomorrows headlines will feature the facts of what we thought were fiction.

…………..as for Miliband, he played straight into his opponents hands when distancing himself from the biggest ally he had, wee little Nicola………..

geoff
i live in a country where more than 50% of the voters, demand radical social change… the snp claim that they can deliver, they’ll be out on their ears if they don’t…the state only has the power that we give it….

Well, it IS tempting. It’s a bit too convenient for the Tories and the 1% to be true, isn’t it, considering how even the previous polls were. However, I suspect that can be explained by a shitload of people pussying out in the voting booth. The cunts.

I can’t believe the stupidity of the English. They’ve voted for five more years of a fat idle thicko as Prime Minister and a Chancellor who gets his advice from a crack fiend. They’ve voted to have human rights abolished, they’ve voted for higher rents, they’ve voted for higher utility and transport bills, they’ve voted for billionaires evading tax, they’ve voted not to have legal representation, they’ve voted for lower wages, they’ve voted for the state to interfere in their lives on an unprecedented scale through universal credit, they’ve voted for the destruction of the NHS, they’ve voted for the privatisation of anything the Tories can steal, they’ve voted for outsourcing and the loss of their own jobs, they’ve voted for the destruction of the welfare state, they’ve voted for ministers who piss away fortunes on failed projects that just happen to reward their supporters, they’ve voted for a party financed by non-dom billionaires, they’ve voted for a party that actually drives the poorest and most vulnerable to suicide.

This is what happens when you have an opposition party in name only. For five years Labour has said they’ll do the same as the Tories but be a little nicer about it when they should have been tearing apart every word from the government’s collection of crooks, liars and incompetents.

Five more years of this and even worse now Fat Dave knows how stupid the voters are. When’s the next Scottish referendum?

we need a new way, i am talking about a brand new way not a copy of a bad system.. each area in a town has a person who everyone knows, have a jury duty random pick of people in that area (has to have lived there for at least 5 years), so no more professional politicians, but real people from all walks of life. they go into the town and theres a vote of who is best to represent that town, then that goes to a county area, then you get the best person from the county at each level people are KNOWN by the people in the town, and area.. and they havea direct contact with someone who live in that area, and knows the specific area and whats best for their town/county.. limit the amount of time a MP can be a MP, No more safe seats. add to that the ability to impeach and get rid of any one who brings politics into disrepute, and make is an offence to lie, a legal binding contract manifesto pledge.. if they cant make the pledge get a referrendum about it..give the power back to the people

How breathtakingly astonishing to her seat-loser MvVey describe the election campaign as “brutal”. Brutal: a word often used to describe McVey’s sanctions! MvVey ranted on about “vile abuse”: “there have been calls on Twitter that I should be hanged from a lamppost”, accused John McDonnell MP of “threatening to send a mob to Liverpool to lynch me” and even had to audacity to complain about “graffiti sprayed on a wall”

Huw Edwards on BBC News has just said that John McDonnell has just been in touch to say that he didn’t call for mass murderer and inveterate lair McVey to be lynched – “he was only reporting what other activists had said”.

So when are the DWP going to take me to court for defrauding the DWP out of £800,000 over the past …. years. I am still wanting on the DWP`s loop Holes of fraud. I will make a load of money in that job of defending myself. The Onus Is On The Burden Of Proof. Let`s get high profile in the media.
Cash Cow Rebellion.

Now that the abled bodied people have had their go in trying to change things & it has not worked. Step back & now let the disabled people do their work in Human Rights & Equality Issues. Disability is not a political issue.

The door is open to kill off all disabled people in England with sanctions that are unlawful within the United Nations Community. Don`t say that I said Kill Disabled People because that will lead to another court case with the DWP fraud case. When will the DWP stop pussyfooting around & find me a job. There is no legal aid which makes no difference to me. I only speak to your lawyers DWP since I represent myself. So stop trying to talk to me DWP you are in litigation with your lawyers DWP.

if ever a PP needed to be wiped out tis red tories, yes and the blue tories….but if labour cannot get the precarious class vote, then they’re truly surplus to requirements….. same old crap though ‘we did nothing wrong they just didn’t listen to us…’….luckily hrs of vids tell a different story that it was them who didn’t listen, and arrogantly expected our votes…ie answer the question lady in ayr, pleads to murphy…’why did GB lie…over heart transplants etc!’ that’s wot did it, they did it to themselves, plain and simple…’once upon a time, in scotlandshire, north britain, there lived a lib dem, slabber, and a tory…..’ is the best story ending so far…. 🙂
HHarman?? best disband now imo….

I couldn’t believe that last election result. It’s like hiring a man-eating shark as your children’s swimming instructor. [imitating parent] “Yes, I know it bit my baby’s head off last time, but I still think it deserves another chance.”

Though this result was entirely predictable, and we will never know whether it was Miliband’s craven refusal to even consider aligning with the SNP and others that persuaded people to not bother voting that effectively gave the Tories a majority. Disillusioned not to mention deranged former Labour voters voting for UKIP of course haven’t helped The question remains, what do we do now? The poor are now very much at the mercy of an all out Tory onslaught, and will no doubt bear the brunt of the planned budget cuts. As well as this, the Bedroom Tax remains, and also the imposition of Universal Credit that will see many of those who voted Tory/UKIP come under the conditionality of the Reich Labour Service (formerly known as the DWP). Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas.

It’s hard to be positive, and I for one, (living in a Wales where more than 25% of the seats are Tory, and where the vermin have actually gained) am feeling more than a little despondent. However, great things have happened in Scotland, and I am pleased for the Scottish people. I hope that Scotland will be a beacon of hope for the rest of us, and springboard of opposition to the Tory totalitarianism that is now bound to happen.

Now that the election bollcocks is over, can they all fucking stop with all that boring claptrap on the telly? I never voted and I never will as whoever is in power they all fuck it up for everybody not living in the Westminister bubble.

All politicians in whatever party all promise us one thing in order to get into power, but as soon as they get in power, they say and do the opposite to their election promises. Fucking liars and cheats the lot of them.

I saw a poor guy being sanctioned a while ago for not recording anything in jobsearch on his UJM account. Thank goodness I use a paper JSD to keep my jobsearch record (as EVERYONE is entitled to do), refrain from logging into UJM when I’m merely browsing for jobs on it (as EVERYONE is entitled to do) and deny them access to my UJM account (as EVERYONE is entitled to do). In a way I’m glad Camoron has “swept to victory” as Labour have been exposed for many of the country as just another version of Tory. The storm will come soon and he will be at the centre of it.

How this article describes benefits under Labour is utter bullshit. The atmosphere has completely changed now, I was on the new deal under labour and was mostly supported in my training and in the arts and under a scheme I chose to be on, even got a decent job. Under the coalition Im hearing much more of sanctions, let alone the disability and atos. The good points raised by this author are ruined by this poisonous misinformation. I work with homeless and disadvantaged people – you are simply not right in saying things were worse under labour. And criticising a performer/celebrity like Brand with such venom- it just sounds small minded and envious. Yes, celebrities live in a bubble and will never have to face the hardships and reality that we do, but spouting this kind of hatred for someone who did a positive campaign for New Era residents and set up a cafe run by and for addicts – it just sounds small minded

Follow Blog via Email

By John Pring Disability News Service 3rd May 2018 A national network of mental health service-users, survivors and activists is facing closure next month if it cannot secure new funding, after becoming the latest victim of competition from large, non-user-led … Continue reading →

Dear Mr Reynolds Regarding your statement that “Welfare should reflect ‘what you put in’ to tackle public mistrust” In a comment to the Morning Star, our spokesperson described your comments as “Toxic idiocy”. Toxic, because, as (too few) wise and responsible senior politicians are well aware, we live in a dangerously fractured, highly unequal society.… Cont […]

More Work ‘Coaches…’ DWP draws up plans to double the number of work coaches for Universal Credit The Mirror seems to be the first with this news. Congratulations to them! The government is braced for a rise in unemployment and millions more on benefits due to the economic fallout of Covid-19. Benefit chiefs have drawn […]

Due to the Kingsgate Community Centre being closed over Xmas 2019 the last KUWG meeting for 2019 is Thursday 19th December, recommencing in 2020 Thursday 9th January. Happy Post-Election Xmas, if possible!

Following the recent confirmation that a large number of prosecutions have been wrongly pursued under the coronavirus emergency legislation, there is increasing concern at the very high numbers of fixed penalty notices that have been handed out by police for alleged breaches of lockdown laws. There is every reason to believe many of these fines […] The post […]